I am opposed to any kind of communalism or discrimination on religious or caste lines: Hazare Beware of vilification campaign, Modi writes to social activist The clarification by social activist Anna Hazare on his praising Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his “rural development model” has failed to satisfy his supporters who threatened to dissociate themselves from the movement against corruption. “That is exactly what we are questioning: Mr. Modi's rural development model,...

Global health organisations cite his work to control TB in tribal areas An international network of health organisations, and individual professionals, researchers, medical students and health activists have written to the World Health Organisation, requesting it to support the cause of release of Binayak Sen. Fourteen health organisations and 178 individual health workers have endorsed the letter written to WHO Director-General Margaret Chan and WHO Executive Secretary of the Stop TB partnership,...

A survey by the West Midnapore administration has found that over two lakh voters, three fourths of them in Maoist-affected areas, are afraid of voting. District officials said the survey of nearly five lakh people to identify “vulnerable voters” had been carried out following instructions from the Election Commission. “As West Midnapore has the largest Maoist-affected area in the state, the commission had asked us to find out about the fear factor...

Any perceptive analyst of democracy will testify that there is no necessary relationship between democracy and a corruption-proof regime, or development, or political stability. If we were to evaluate democracy from the vantage point of the desired ends we expect it to realise, it would fare rather poorly when compared to authoritarian governments, say the one institutionalised in Singapore by its former prime minister, Lee Kuan Yew. Yew transformed Singapore...

The promised power from the Jaitapur nuclear project may light up the area, but Nandkumar Raut already finds the future dark. “Almost every family in the village has a police case against at least one member,” said the farmer from Madban, the village closest to the project site in Maharashtra’s Ratnagiri district. Raut said he has at least three cases foisted on him — one barring him from entering his own village...